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How To Zip A File With WinZip

24 Jun

This Tutorial Will Make It Easy To Zip A File With WinZip, For Better File Management On Your Computer.

By converting a file using WinZip you are in fact compressing it. The term “zipping a file” means to make smaller (hence compress), so that it requires less bandwidth to send via email, and less disk space to store it making it the economical option.

As such the main benefit is that zipping a file enables the user to send it when in normal circumstances they may not have been able to because it is too big. For example, if you need to send an attachment via email and your attachment limit is 10MB but the document you wish to attach is 12MB, then this would be the prime opportunity to use a compression program such as WinZip or WinRAR to condense the file.

Another typical example is making the file smaller so it can be backed up or transferred from one computer to another via an external device such as a memory stick. Although10MB on a memory stick is a small size, the same principal can be applied on much larger files as well.

How To Zip A File

To compress a file in WinZip you will need to do the following:

Open WinZip and then click on the New icon. A browse type window will open displaying the folders on your local hard drive.
Browse through the folders until you reach the place in which you would like to store your document once it has been compressed. This is a required option.
WinZip will create a file called an “archive” which is where the compressed file will be stored. Give the archive a name and click on save. You will then be taken back to the WinZip main window.
To add the file to your archive click on Add. A browse window will open again, scroll through the folders until you reach the location of the document you wish to compress and select it.
You will next need to specify the level of compression, the choices will normally include Normal, None, Fast, Superfast and Maximum.
If you wish to add a password then you can, you will then be taken back to the WinZip main menu where you will find that your compressed file has now been added to the archive folder you created.

You can now close WinZip and when you wish to attached the document to an email, click on the Attach file button and navigate through to where the archive and the compressed document is stored. A few things to note when transferring a compressed file:

If you transfer the compressed file and archive folder to another computer, the file will not open unless the machine has a decompression utility such as WinZip installed on it.
You may want to configure WinZip so that you can display the file size whilst you are compressing it, this then shows you the size before and after compression so you know if the file is small enough.

WinZip describes their product as “the most popular” but there are many other free trials and downloads available. In addition to their main file compression program program, WinZip also offers WinZip Courier which integrates with inboxes and automatically zips outgoing attachments, making it even easier to zip files.